August 2020
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Belarus opened a criminal case over establishing the Coordinating Council (CC) of the Belarusian opposition announced on 18 August. It was initiated under Art. 361 of the Criminal Code for public calls for the seizure of state power, the commission of actions aimed at causing harm to national security, including using the media or the Internet. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, «the establishment of such bodies is not provided for by law, and their activities are unconstitutional.» As part of this criminal case, members of the CC Praesidium Maria Kolesnikova and Maxim Znak were arrested. Ex-presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is also the accused in this case.
Detention of CC members began: law enforcement officers detained members of the Praesidium Sergei Dylevsky and Olga Kovalkova in Minsk in an administrative case. CC member Lilia Vlasova was detained. Anatoly Bokun, co-chairperson of the Belaruskali strike committee, was detained by the State Security Committee (KGB) officers.
September 2020
Detentions of civil society activists in administrative cases. Chairperson of the NGO Ecodom Board Irina Sukhiy, Green Portal`s author Nasta Zakharevich, fem-activist Aleksandra Kurochkina, the head of the executive bureau of the NGO Assembly Stanislava Gusakova, and activist of the LGBT+ rights movement Victoria Biran were detained after searches.
The CC Praesidium members Maxim Znak, Maria Kolesnikova, as well as lawyer Ilya Salei were detained in the criminal case. Subsequently, in September 2021, the court sentenced Maria Kolesnikova to 11 years in prison and Maxim Znak to 10 years in prison.
A video about the relationship between the IT company PandaDoc and the Centre for the Promotion of Women’s Rights Her Rights was broadcast on the state TV (ATN «Agency of Television News»). The video showed a scheme in which the company transfers money to the Centre to fund women’s marches.
Coordinator of the Viasna Human Rights Centre`s volunteer service Marfa Rabkova was detained. A search was conducted in her apartment; equipment, her money and belongings were seized. Later, it became known that she was charged under 11 articles of the Criminal Code: Art. 293(1) (organising mass riots); Art. 293(2) (preparing and deliberate creating conditions for participation in mass riots); Art. 293(3) (educating or other preparing persons for participation in mass riots, as well as financing or other material support for the activities); Art. 342(1) (organising group actions grossly violating public order); Art. 361(3) (calling for actions aimed at causing harm to the national security of the Republic of Belarus using the mass media or the global computer network Internet); Art. 361-1(1) (сreating an extremist formation); Art. 285(1) (leading a criminal organisation); Art. 130(3) (inciting social discord by a group of persons); Art. 339(2) (malicious hooliganism); Art. 339(3) (particularly malicious hooliganism); Art. 341 (desecrating buildings and damaging property); Art. 218(3) (deliberate destruction or damaging another’s property committed by an organised group); Art. 295-3(2) (Illegal actions in relation to objects, the damaging effect of which is based on the use of combustible substances, committed by a group of persons). According to these articles, Rabkkova faces up to 20 years in prison.
There was a start of requesting information from civil society organisations, primarily from recipients of foreign gratuitous assistance, by financial control bodies, such as structures of the General Department for Combating Economic Crimes, the Department of Financial Investigations of the State Control Committee, the Department for humanitarian activities, as well as of justice departments and tax offices. Thus, the State Control Committee carried out an unscheduled inspection of the Local Cultural Foundation Country of Castles.
October 2020
Andrey Chepyuk, a volunteer for the Viasna human rights center, was detained by the General department for combating organized crimes and corruption (GUBOPiK) officers and then was charged under Art. 293(2) of the Criminal Code (participating in mass riots).
Director of Ecodom Marina Dubina, director of the research project ‘Modern Society, Ethics, and Politics’ Olga Shparaga, director of the ABF Effective Communication Development Center Yulia Mitskevich, the Coordinating Council member, coordinator of the movement March, Baby Svetlana Gatalskaya, activist of the Human Rights Center Viasna Marina Kostylyanchenko, and human rights activist of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee Leonid Markhotko (repeatedly) were detained and sentenced to administrative arrests.
There were inspections by the Department of Financial Investigations, the Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, refusal to conclude a lease agreement, and pressure of other kinds against the Grodno children’s hospice.
November 2020
Searches were carried out at the office of the Belarusian Students` Association (ZBS), one of the oldest youth organizations in the country, as well as at the residences of its leaders and activists. Ten activists of the student movement, as well as a teacher for the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics were detained. Later, ZBS` press secretary Ksenia Syromolot, its activist and member of the Coordinating Council Alana Gebremariam, members Yegor Kanetsky, Yana Orobeiko, and Kasya Bud`ko were sentenced to two and a half years in a penal colony under Art. 342 of the Criminal Code (organizing and preparing actions grossly violating public order, or actively participating in them).
A mass blocking of accounts of recipients of assistance from the BY_help foundation supporting victims of mass repressions began.
December 2020
The Prosecutor General’s Office, «taking into account the data obtained during the investigation by the Investigative Committee of the criminal case against members of the so-called coordinating council under Article 361, paragraph 3 of the Criminal Code,» decided to initiate criminal proceedings against S. Tikhanovskaya, M. Kolesnikova, M. Znak, P. Latushko, O. Kovalkova, S. Dylevsky, and other persons over creating and leading an extremist formation, i.e. committing a crime under Art. 361-1(1) of the Criminal Code. The Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case against A. Leonchik and others over financing the activities of an extremist formation under Art. 361-2 of the Criminal Code.
There were searches in the office of the Cultural and Educational Establishment Journalistic Workshop Press Club and in the homes of its managers and employees. Six people were detained: founder Yulia Slutskaya, program director Alla Sharko, financial director Sergei Olshevsky, programme director of the Press Club Academy Sergei Yakupov, cameraperson Piotr Slutsky, and Ksenia Lutskina, a former employee of the state broadcaster Belteleradiocompaniya. Subsequently, in August 2021, they were released, excepting the Coordinating Council member Ksenia Lutskina. The Prosecutor General’s Office announced the closure of the criminal case in connection with a plea agreement, the compensation paid for the damage (approximately 43.7 thousand US dollars) and the special criminal compensation paid.
There was an obvious increase in the number of non-profit organisations that made a decision to selfliquidate. As a result, from September 2020 by 15 March 2022, at least 239 non-profit organisations making decisions on self-liquidation were recorded.